Southern States - Kerala-Thiruvananthapuram   

Suryanelli victim alleges harassment by CBI

By Our Staff Reporter

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM Aug. 11. The parents of the Suryanelli sex scandal case victim have alleged that the attempt to link the girl to the Sr. Abhaya murder case and subsequent "harassment'' by the CBI investigation team was part of a conspiracy to protect those in high places.

Talking to reporters here on Sunday, the girl and her mother alleged that the new turn of events was a deliberate attempt by vested interests to scuttle the proceedings in the Suryanelli case.

The interrogation of the girl by the CBI team in Kottayam in connection with the sensational Abhaya murder case, has already raked up a controversy with allegations that the girl was harassed by CBI officials and that the basic norms of questioning had been violated.

The girl had been subjected to questioning by the CBI team following a lead that she might have been present at the Pious Convent at the time when Abhaya was allegedly murdered. The CBI had questioned the girl on the basis of a High Court directive.

A Pala-based organisation, which received a letter from a woman who claimed to have new leads to the Abhaya murder, had approached the High Court seeking that the new evidence be considered.

The letter had been sent by Mary of Kuravilangad, the 38th accused in the Suryanelli sex scandal.

The girl and her parents had come to the city to give a petition to the Human Rights Commission regarding the alleged harassment.

However, the Commission member, S. Balaraman, had expressed his helplessness about intervening in the investigation process of the CBI.

The girl's mother said the CBI officials never told them in the beginning that the questioning was in connection with the Abhaya murder case. She was asked whether she had been secretly visiting Pious Convent, where Sister Abhaya was staying, and whether she knew a boy named Arun.

``My daughter repeatedly told the CBI officials that she did not know Arun and that she had not seen Abhaya ever in her life, but the officials kept accusing her of lying,'' the girl's mother said.

She said it was true that her daughter had been staying at Mount Carmel hostel in 1992, when Abhaya was murdered. But she was just 11 years old at the time and she didn't even know where Pious Convent was.

She further alleged that Mary of Kuravilangad, one of the accused in the Suryanelli sex scandal and who is now out on bail, had intimidated the girl with the consent of the CBI officials. Mary had accused the girl of being a witness to Abhaya being killed.

The girl's mother said the CBI officials had asked the girl to appear for a polygraph test and to give her consent by August 14, for which she might have to be taken to Pune.

"We are prepared to present the girl for the polygraph test, provided we are assured of adequate protection,'' the mother said.

She said that they would approach the High Court against the CBI's manner of questioning. "We just want to be allowed to live in peace. My daughter has just begun to pick up the pieces of her life. After all that she has gone through, they want to harass her again, that too upon the word of one of the accused in the case,'' she said.

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